


Striking Sins!

by celestial_sundae



Category: DC Extended Universe, Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken, Shazam! (2019), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, the newsies shazam au we all know was gonna happen eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-07 10:35:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18408893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestial_sundae/pseuds/celestial_sundae
Summary: When young Jack Kelly inherits the powers of an ancient being. He does what any other teen would probably do and just have fun with it. However, he is in hot pursuit by a dastardly villain by the name of Dr. Snyder. Aided by his foster family including resident superhero expert, Charlie Morris. Jack must learn to master his powers and in the process find some closure to one burning question he's had all his life.SPOILER ALERT FOR SHAZAM! (2019)(Also this is the first newsies fanfic I've ever posted on this platform so please let me live)





	1. Chapter 1

  
**New York**  
**Christmas Eve 1974**  
  
  
William Snyder loved his magic 8 ball, it was a gift from his mother, it reminded him of a time when they were all so happy. Before his mother died, before his brother started bullying him, before his father shut himself from everyone in a pursuit for money and power. Nowadays, he was always being ostracized by everyone. He tried turning to his family for support, but instead they would give him a hard thwack “You’re a man now Willy, start acting like it!”. That’s why he kept the magic 8 ball around a lot, it kept him happy. Which is why he brought it over for their trip to Grandpa’s.  
  
His father however was not amused “Put that away! You’re a man now” he yelled from the front seat of the car they were all on. William sighed, times like this he wished he could act like a man. “But dad…I’m still 14! give me a chance to play with it, just for a little bit” William shouted but he was quickly shushed by a loud yell. “OH FOR GOD’S SAKE! YOU’RE ALMOST AN ADULT! STOP ACTING LIKE SUCH A PUSSY!”.  
  
His brother chuckled “Willy is a baby! Willy is a baby!”. He reached out and snatched the magic 8 ball from his brother’s hand, “Hey give that back! That’s mine!” William frantically waved his hand. “Oh, boo hoo, look at William! Still crying over his toys” his brother continued to taunt. His father did nothing to discourage him, in fact William could have sworn he saw his father even chuckle.  
  
As he continued to beg for his ball back, the lights of the car turned dark. Quickly it turned back on again, “What the?” William felt panic overtaking him, his family was missing. Suddenly the car began to go at a very fast pace. William panicked, he moved into the front seat and attempted to break, his actions however proved to no avail. “HELP!” he screeched, banging on the car doors “SOMEBODY HELP!”. Alas, the car ultimately stopped.  
  
William heaved a sigh of relief, he wasn’t dead yet, but where the heck was, he?! He looked out the window, he was in some weird cave. William then began to debate in his head on whether he should come out, you never know what kind of monsters could be lurking outside, but eventually his curiosity got the best of him. He got out of the car and proceeded to go around the place.  
  
“Umm hello?!” he called out “HELLO?!”. He then noticed a strange corridor illuminated by bright light. He proceeded to go to it, gazing around the walls. He passed by several statues, each with a label. Greed, Lust, Envy, Hatred, Pride, Sloth, and Injustice. “The seven deadly sins” he murmured out loud.  
  
“THAT IS CORRECT!” thundered a boisterous voice. William flinched, he then turned to see the source. There stood before him was a wrinkly old man with a long white beard and a glowing staff that illuminated the hallways. “WOAH!” William exclaimed, the man reminding him of the mages he read in stories “You must be a wizard!”. “Indeed” the old man stated, “and these here are the seven deadly enemies of man”.  
  
After a minute of brief silence William immediately got to the important questions “Who are you? Where am I? What happened to my father? my brother?”. The wizard stared at him intently “They call me Shazam and I seek someone pure of heart, one worthy to take my place as champion”. Shazam then showed him a vision of a man, the man he could become, someone with power. Power beyond belief.  
  
He then banged his staff into the ground and at once a brightly colored red orb encased in a netted cage showed up “Do you William Snyder, have what it takes?”. William was going to ask how the hell the old guy knew his name but the thought of becoming champion. To hold such high amounts of power. To be able to get back at his family for ever doubting him. The idea soon dominated all his other thoughts. “Go on” nudged the wizard,  
  
William then walked towards the orb with caution, he proceeded to stare intently at it for a good few minutes before the cage disappeared. Then he heard such lovely sweet voices “Your family thinks you’re weak” one said, “They do not care for you” another stated, “The wizard lies, he's brought you to make a fool of yourself!" "Join us, together we can give you ultimate power!” on and on the voices continued. They promised him anything he wanted, all he had to do was simply reach out. William wasn't sure but he could tell it was wrong. William could tell it was probably the sins trying to coax him, but oh did it feel so good. Maybe just for a bit, he reached out, maybe just for a while. Maybe it really won't be all that bad if he....  
  
He didn’t know what he was doing but he then heard the wizard scream “NO!”. At once the cage reappeared out of thin air, he turned towards the wizard who stared at him with fury “Only a being of pure heart could resist such temptations! You are not pure of heart! YOU WILL NEVER BE CHAMPION!”. “No wait! Please sir give me a” William could feel himself reaching out, but he was no longer in the cave, he had somehow managed to get back in the car.  
  
“Wait” he banged on the car doors “I’ll be good! I promise!”. “WILLIAM!" his father screeched “The hell are you doing!?”. His banging caused his father to lose control of the vehicle and for a split second they nearly crashed into an oncoming truck. His father quickly swirled the car so that they could get out of harms way, the wheels sliding on the slippery lane until finally it stopped in the middle of the road. When it was all over William’s father let go of the wheel and turned towards his son, then he proceeded to let loose all hell “WILLIAM SNYDER! YOU MOTHERFUCKING USELESS BASTARD PIECE OF SHIT NO GOOD SON! YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN US KILLED!!!” he kept hitting his son repeatedly.  
  
Blood started oozing out of his son’s nose, William was bawling like crazy as his brother stood there and cheered. Just then another vehicle rammed into them, causing the car to spiral to a halt. Eventually when the impact ended, a bruised William quickly got out of the car. What he saw next would forever haunt him for the rest of his life. He saw his brother had already left, crouched at his father’s paralyzed body lying in the snow. His brother was trying to shake him “HELP!” he called out “SOMEBODY!”. He turned to William with a look of murder "You! YOU DID THIS! YOU DEMON!!!!”. William Snyder looked around, he couldn’t bear to see the sight. As his brother’s threats soon drowned out, he found himself staring at his magic 8 ball. the item forgotten after his brother had taken it. Surprisingly it managed to survive the crash, still perfectly intact. Only… “Find us” the ball displayed, now that was not the magic 8 ball’s usual response.  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
Shazam coughed and wheezed as he sat on his throne. "You grow weak young man!" he could hear the sins taunting him "Soon you will no longer be able to contain us" "SILENCE!" Shazam then cast a spell with his magic staff, billions of tiny light particles burst out of it. "Go!" he said, scattering the remnants around the world "and find me a champion!"  
  
From then on William Snyder would hate Christmas with a burning passion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first newsies fic here on ao3
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you enjoyed
> 
> (Additional notes: This chapter has been edited cause let's face it, the bullies that chase Billy were the Delancey Brothers incarnate. Also thanks to LesPhansie for the tip, I'll try keeping that in mind in the future. Oh and thanks to you all for reading this even though it's really not that good.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Pennsylvania**  
**December 2019**  
  
  
It was a fine day in the city that “loves you back”.  
The holidays were coming soon and so all-round town you could see houses lined with bright decorations and colorful ornaments.  
Snow had also come and coated every inch of the avenues like sugary icing.  
Some people were still hard at work yet huge grins were plastered on their faces.  
Others were just busy enjoying a nice day out with their families or looking for the right gifts to give to their loved ones on Christmas.  
Judging from all that, you could almost say it was a perfect day.  
Except….  
  
  
Whew whew whew sounded a police car as two officers rushed to reach the scene of a crime, a pawn shop on the side of the road.  
The cops picked up the pace, just to make sure they got there before the unknown perps got away.  
When they finally arrived, they were both greeted by a young dark-haired boy wearing a fur collared suede coat over his red jacket and blue striped shirt.  
A gray knit cap protected his head from the chilly winter air and a navy blue bag, with the words “Santa Fe Sweetheart” and a cowboy icon on the front, was strapped behind his back.  
  
“Holey Moley!” the boy exclaimed “Why if it ain’t the boys in blue! Boy, am I sure glad to see you! I-I called as soon as I saw!”  
He proceeded to point to a closed door at the back of the shop “They’re right there”.  
“Okay stay here kid” they instructed before going inside and walking toward the door.  
Leaning in, the two officers announced their arrival “Philadelphia Police open up!”.  
When they heard no response, they proceeded to burst open the door.  
What they saw next was a sight to behold.  
  
  
“Sir there’s nothing here, It’s a closet!”  
  
  
“Wow! You actually bought that huh”  
  
  
  
the officers turned around to see the boy close the shop doors on them. “Stop! stop! stop!” called one of the officers, “OPEN THE DOOR!” yelled the other.  
Instead the boy brought down the shop gates, waving goodbye with a cocky smile, leaving them both trapped inside. He then ran towards the police car parked nearby.  
“Hey kid you can’t do that! THAT’S A FEDERAL OFFENCE” said the blonde curly-haired officer but his pleas fell on deaf ears.  
  
The boy got inside the front seat and then scrambled to take a notebook out from his bag. He scouted its contents, eventually finding the page he was looking for. He looked at the police car’s computer and then proceeded to type in a search code.  
At once a bunch of search results came out, the names and addresses of different women came up. Each one having the same last name,  
**Kelly.**  
  
The boy quickly perked up, satisfied at the information he managed to find. He quickly scribbled it down on his notebook.  
  
Meanwhile, the officers began to make sarcastic remarks. The really short dark-haired one in particular “Ah ha very funny”. Seeing that their warnings were not being heeded, the short officer began to radio in the station “Hey dispatch we need back up at Northwood shopping center please”.  
Seeing this the boy pulled out his own radio and contacted dispatch “Dispatch cancel that request, some kid stole our walkie talkies”.  
  
“Walkie talkies? How old are you?!” answered a voice.  
The boy cringed, looks like he was running again.  
He quickly put away his things back in his back and proceeded to leave.  
Before he did however, he stared intently at a pack of take out food lying on the counter of the car.  
  
  
“NO! NO! NO! Hey, THAT’S MY CHURROS kid!” yelled the blonde officer in horror as he saw the boy depart with his precious churros.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this, this one was really short.
> 
> Are Spot and Race the two officers?! One word. YES.
> 
> Also was it Northwood shopping center?! I'm not sure anymore


	3. Chapter 3

Jack Kelly heaved a sigh of worry as he crossed out another name from his notebook.  
Continuing on his way, he couldn’t help but find himself staring at all the decorations and ornaments that covered the houses in the streets.  
It made him think of that day, even though he was just four or five during that time, he could still remember the details visibly in his mind.  
  
It happened at the fair.  
His mother had brought him there during the holiday season.  
They were just walking around when Jack spotted something that really caught his eye, a large stuffed cowboy with a bright red bandana.  
Jack squealed, he adored cowboys. Every night his mother would tell him stories of cowboys of the old wild west.   
Legendary heroes who saved distressed damsels and stopped the bad guys from attacking the town.   
Back then Jack practically admired all that and he wanted to emulate them so bad, even trying to talk in a funky mid-west accent that admittedly ended up sounding  a lot more..  
  
new yorker?!  
  
Anyways, he tugged on his mother to get her attention, pointing towards the stand. His mother looked up at him, then the stand, before breaking into a large sweet smile "You want to play a game of darts?".  
"I want the cowboy mommy" Jack stated, jumping up and down.  
"Okay then! Let's go get it" and with that they went to the balloons and darts stand.  
"Hey mistah!" Jack greeted the attendant of the stand  "I want the cowboy stuffed toy, how much is it?".  
His mother and the attendant burst into laughter, "Jackie!" his mother explained "We have to play a game first before we can get it!"  
  
Jack stared at her in confusion "Game? What game?". "Well you see" began his mother "We have to pop at least 20 balloons in order to get your cowboy!".  
"Oh, then what are we waiting for?" Jack clapped excitedly "Let's do this!".  
His mother continued smiling "That's the spirit Jack!".

Now Jack couldn't remember much of the detail afterwards, but he knew then that they were seriously lagging behind.  
"Can't you go faster mommy?" he asked.  
"Sweetie I'm doing the best I can here" his mother replied, flashing the sweetest smile.   
"Can I do it?" Jack offered.  
"No, you'll hurt yourself" his mother replied.  
  
Eventually, POP! went one balloon "HA! WE GOT ONE!" Jack's mother exclaimed.   
Jack's mother reached out for another dart, only to realize they had already run out.  
"Look's like you're out" the attendant remarked "Would you like to buy some more?".  
"No thank you" said his mother, waving her hand.  
Jack turned to her with raised eyebrows "Why did you stop mommy?".  
His mother sighed "Well um we've already gotten a prize.  
As the attendant came back, handing them their prize, Jack couldn't help but express his disappointment "But Mama you said you'd get me-".  
"The cowboy, I know" his mother continued "but you know what this is the REAL prize!".  
She held up the reward so Jack could see it clearly "You see this is a compass" Jack nodded "Well with this baby you'll always know how to get back home".  
  
"Really?" Jack said, eyes wide with awe.  
"Really" his mother nodded "Now you better promise mommy you won't lose it, mommy worked hard to get you that and if you lose it, dare I say it, you'll be lost forever!!!"  
Jack stared at her with slight horror  
  
Seeing him in that state made his mother chuckle "Oh Jack, it's no big deal" her language then reverted to that of the ones living in the wild old west of Jack's childhood. "Youse a cowboy ain't cha? "  
Jack nodded  
"Well a cowboy's gotta take care of what belong to him like his stuff, or else theyse gonna get stolen by the bad guys" she said "So do youse promise".  
Jack spit on his hand and shook hers, his five year old way of making a promise.   
Others would have found it disgusting, certainly the attendant was giving them strange looks, but that didn't matter to Jack because to him. That was just their thing.   
After that, his mother pulled him close and gave him a tight hug before they they continued hand in hand on their way to explore all the sights of the fair.  
  
  
All around, Jack saw bright lights and colorful Christmas decorations, not unlike the ones he was seeing now. Only they were in a much larger scale and they practically covered every inch of the entire fair, scattering about like rainbow flowers in a snow coated wonderland.  
As Jack looked around, he suddenly had the thought of checking his newly earned prize. So he took it out from his pocket, holding it up with his hand in order to stare at it more closely. BIG MISTAKE! He should have known better than to take it out of a crowd, cause when a few of the many fair-goers bumped into him, the item immediately flew out of his hand.    
  
Jack panicked, what would his mother think of her young son... her cowboy now? He scrambled to get it, letting go of his mother's hand. "JACK!" she could hear him shout. Jack was almost tempted to go back to her. But no! He had a mission to do! He was a big boy now and he needed to fix his mistakes, and he couldn't bear to see the look on his mother's face when finding out he lost the prize. The one she worked hard to earn, less than a minute into receiving it.  
As he lowered his knees to find it, he could see the people stomping around and kicking the compass to different areas.  
This just made his task more difficult since it kept going forth from place to place, but Jack was determined not to give up.  
Like a cowboy! Be a cowboy! Like a hero! Be a hero! were the thoughts that kept him pushing forward.   
  
Finally, his determination paid off and he managed to get the compass with its parts still intact.   
He then proceeded to look for his mother but Oh no! He couldn't see her anywhere anymore, he was lost!  
"Mom!" he called out "MAMA!"  
Still no response, he did receive some looks from the people around though.   
He anxiously checked every nook and cranny of that area, searching around the fair. Still she was nowhere in sight. He tried going back to the balloon and darts stand, but she wasn't there.  
Eventually, Jack grew tired and sat on one of the benches near a stand, his eyes on the verge of tears.  
He suddenly recalled something his mother once told him "If you're lost, don't panic, just... just go to the cops and they'll be able to help you".  
  
New found hope inside him, he went to the fair entrance and spotted some officers and a police car in the side. Jack then approached and was about to say something but then he stopped, he... he couldn’t do this… he wasn’t good at talking to people! but… if he didn’t, would he ever see his mom again? Jack knew he had to do this, so swallowing his fear, he called the cops attention.  
  
"Hey officer! officer!" he shouted, letting out some sobs uncontrollably "Can you help me find my mom?".  
The officer turned to him with a worried glance "Sure thing kid, say you look cold".  
He took out a blanket and lifted him up so he could sit on the police car. The cop then wrapped the blanket around him "So kid what's your mother's name?"...  
  
Jack sighed, what was it again... ugh "Kelly" he just said "her last name his Kelly".  
The cop simply nodded his head.  
Jack began to burst into little sobs.  
The cop looked at him pitifully, he looked at Jack and smiled sympathetically "I'm sure she'll be back sooner than you think, I mean what kind of a mother leaves their own child?"  
  
  
  
Present day, Jack sighed once more.  
It's been years now and he hasn't seen her again since.  
Apparently the kind of mother who left their own children was his own mother.  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
